William j



NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

WILLIAM J. MENZIES, OF ST. HELENS, COUNTY OF LANCASTER, ENGLAND.

MANUFACTURE OF MEDICATED AND ANTISEPTIC S'OAPS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 286,048, dated October 2, 1883.

Application filed August 28,1883. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM J. MENZIES, of St. Helens, county of Lancaster, England, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Medicated and Antiseptic Soaps, of which the following v is a specification.

Hitherto the manufacture of medicated soaps and soap fluids for the removal of lice, fly, maggot, and scab from the skin of the sheep has been accomplished by taking more or less of a caustic and alkaline soap, generally a soda soap, and adding to it some strong antisepticsuch as carbolic acidor strong poisonsuch as arsenicand frequently with the addition of caustic-soda solution, to increase its cleansing properties. The obj ection to all such dips, wool cleaning compositions, and antiseptic soaps containing a large excess of free alkali is that they injure the wool if the sheep is dipped before shearing, and the sheep itself cannot be thoroughly ducked overhead and left for some time to steep in the dippingtank, owing to the injurious action on the eyes, nose, or other exposed tender parts of the skin of the animal, thus not insuring the complete eradication of the lice or scab by prolonged exposure of every part to the sheep-dipping fluid.

N ow, I have discovered that if a neutral potash soap be employed in the manufacture of sl1eep-dip and wool cleansing composition, in stead of an alkaline soap, (either with or without the addition of alkali,) and which neutral potash soap is a new article of commerce, as explained in Letters Patent of the United States No. 254,832, granted to me, with the addition of an antiseptic-such as carbolic acid-21. very superior sheep dipping compound or antiseptic soap to any of those hitherto made can be obtained.

I find the best mode of making my sheepdipping compound or antiseptic soap is as follows: Twenty pounds of the pure commerto each ten gallons of water.

cial caustic potash of commerce of about eighty- 4 5 four per cent. strength is dissolved in two gallons of water, and the lye'thus obtained mixed by stirring with eighty pounds of melted tallow or oil of a temperature of about 120 Fahrenheit. This mixture is then covered up to keep in the heat caused by the slow process of saponification, which then commences and gradually turns the mass into soap, complete saponification generally being effected in two or three days, the result being a neutral potash soap. I take forty pounds of this neutral potash soap, and at the same time add half a gallon to a gallon of liquid carbolic acid of about eighty per cent. strength and ten gallons of water, (or, if required, I reduce the water added to five gallons) and boil the whole together until thoroughly mixed. In this way a very superior sheep-dipping compound or antiseptic soap is produced, which, when required for sheep-dipping, should be used in the proportion of one gallon of the sheep-dip" I do not confine myself to a neutral potash soap made as above, as it may be produced by boiling, though I prefer the above method of producing it; nor do I confine myself to carbolic acid, as tar-oil, sulphur, or even arsenic may be used, though I prefer carbolic acid.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The improved medicated soap composition or antiseptic soap, composed of neutral potash soap, in combination with any known anti septic destroying substance now in use for this purpose.

I11 witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

\VILLIAM J MENZIES.

Witnesses:

Gno. H. SoNNEBoRN, Q. B. MoRRIs. 

